Fastener products having a base substrate with fastener elements for engagement with loops or like fastener elements can be continuously produced from, e.g., a thermoplastic material. Typically, methods for producing such fastener products result in tape-like substrates having a continuous pattern of fastener elements extending across an entire surface or in uniform bands or rows along the length of the substrate. Often times, however, it would be advantageous in applications for such fastener products, to have the presence of the fastener elements limited to pre-selected zones or arranged in patterned areas along the substrate.
For example, there are some applications where it would be desirable to have patterned fastener element, e.g., hook, areas with adjacent areas that lack fastener element protrusions on a common web. Currently any such fastener products are generally made by multi-step forming, cutting and joining operations because most hook products are limited to complete or at least continuous hook coverage across or along the length of the hook bearing web. Providing hook products having other configurations would generally require specially designed tooling, e.g., hook forming mold cavity rolls with flat areas and hook forming cavity areas in the desired configuration. However, if the desired hook bearing shape and/or pattern is subsequently changed, the specialty tool would require redesign and or rebuilding to accommodate the change.